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User blog:John Pan/FQ-17 Nimrod
FQ-17 Nimrod Drone pilots don't climb into a cockpit for takeoff; instead they enter their ground-control station, a thirty-foot-by-eight-foot trailer in a parking lot on the grounds at Creech. Detractors, often “real” pilots, refer to the 432nd as the Chair Force, but even though the men and women of Creech are some 7,500 miles from the battle space over which their aircraft fly, with their state-of-the-art computers, cameras, and satellite control systems the are as connected to the action as any fighter pilots looking out a canopy. -''Threat Vector'' The advent of the unmanned aerial vehicle revolutionized warfare. Now, the pilot—drone operator—could sit in a comfortable desk, surrounded by aviation readouts, and control a plane half a world away, raining destruction down on enemy targets. That was before the Great Nuclear Crisis. Now, they've added another function: air-to-air combat. Empty Weight: 4,000kg Loaded Weight: 6,000kg Maximum Takeoff Weight: 15,000kg Crew Composition *Drone Operator—Drone Sensory The FQ-17 carries an X-band radar in its nose. For automated takeoff/landing, the Nimrod carries a battery of five LADARs on the underside of the aircraft, allowing precise landing, even on carrier decks tossed around by hurricane-force waves. A GPS Blue-force-tracker is standard. Upgrades RQ-17 Recon Package For high-altitude long-range reconnaissance missions, the Nimrod can get a powerful E/O sensor suite, high-resolution cameras, and a wide-angle IR search camera. This allows the RQ-17 to read newspaper print twenty kilometers in the sky. Armament Air-to-Air Combat Package For A-A warfare, the FQ-17 can carry three AIM-9Z Evolved Sidewinders in its weapons bay. For dogfighting, where it has the upper hand (try beating 31G maneuvers, biological organism!), it carries an M61A2 Vulcan. M61A2 (1) Mounted underneath the fuselage in a self-containing teardrop mount, the Vulcan can pump out 6000 20mm cannon rounds a minute, allowing it dump its 300-round reserve in three seconds flat. A half-second burst is enough to pulverize most aircraft. Armored planes notwithstanding. AIM-9Z (3) The “Evo” is the latest increment in Sidewinder development. With a Box-Office vector thruster, ultra-sensitive “smart” IR seeker, a robust slow-burning rocket, and insensitive 11kg directed shrapnel warhead, the AIM-9Z is the most lethal in history, able to hit a target within 40km at a top speed of Mach 4. 60-G maneuvers are commonly part of this missile's routine. Air-to-Ground Strike Package For ground support, the FQ-17 can carry two AGM-65X Longhorns in its weapons bay. AGM-65X (2) The Longhorn is the latest iteration of the air-to-surface guided missile. Taking in design innovations from the Maverick and air-launched cruise missiles like the Storm Shadow, the AGM-65X is equipped with a stealth-treated (shaped to reduce its RCS) hardened steel case on the outside. Inside this protective skin, the AGM-65X squeezes an active-millimeter seeker, a GPS module, an ECCM suite, a 65kg tandem HEAT warhead, JP-8, and a turbojet motor. This combination allows it to tear through 3000mm of RHA—fired from 100km away. Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses You've got to be *****ing me! -unofficial motto of Wild Weasel crews When SAM-hunting begins, it's best to bring the Wild Weasels. Now available on UCAVs. AGM-100 HARM (2) A reduced-size High speed Anti-Radiation Missile, designed to be crammed into the small weapons bays of Nimrods. Only as long as an AGM-65X, the AGM-100 gets a much smaller airframe, a radiation seeker, an active-millimeter seeker (in case the radar gets shut down), and a robust dual grain rocket motor plus guidance fins to accurately deliver its 25kg pre-fragmented HE warhead. The missile can hit Mach 7 as it dives down on its target 150km away (from 10 kilometers in the air), allowing it to outrun most SAM systems. Upgrades None. Protection The FQ-17 has an aluminum skin, shaped and coated to reduce its RCS. Treated ceramic plates cool off the drone's exhaust. It also carries a standardized EW module and the normal chaff-and-flares countermeasure kit. Upgrades EQ-17B Electric Nimrod EW Package To allow the Nimrod to perform the EW support role, it can get a powerful standoff radar jammer, radio scramblers, and counter-jamming computers. This provides it with the ability to effectively support other fighters, including manned fighters. Mobility The FQ-17 is powered by a Pratt&Whitney-designed (but built everywhere and by everyone, including Thales in Oceania) F180-200 high-efficiency turbofan. This provides the drone with 10,000 Newtons of dry (i.e. no afterburner) thrust, more than enough to lift it (just tipping 6 tons fully loaded) into the air—without a catapult on an amphibious assault ship—and cruise at 800kmph. The engine is coupled to a 2D vector thruster, allowing the drone to make very tight maneuvers—31Gs are completely tolerable. The drone's combat radius is approximately 500km. Upgrades None. Category:Blog posts